The protesting students at the University of Technology Lae are standing strong in their decision to carry on their protests despite the Prime Minister Peter O’Neill threatening to shut down their school.

Vocal student president Eddie Nagual says he has met with legal representation today and will advise the student body.

He says this is to ensure the interests of the student body participating in this protest are protected under law.

However, Nagual says that he and his executives will not be moved as they are now stronger in numbers given the overwhelming support shown by off-campus communities.

Meantime, SRC representative Stanley Topoka says that the other major universities have also held smaller forums to discuss their plight and have so far given verbal support to their cause.

Topoka says that National Union of Students interim president Bobby Yupi, who is also the UPNG SRC president, has been in contact with his executives as well as closely monitoring the situation.

About Me

Committed to making a real difference by leading positive change in higher education.

For over 10 years
from 1993-2004, I worked in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean
in the field of environmental and sustainable development policy, and
environmental economics. My research interest is the role of technology and private business in the development of countries.

As an academic I have 17 peer review publications in various humanities and social sciences disciplines, supervised 5 PhD students and 18 Masters thesis.

As a consultant I worked as head of the environmental
studies department of SIDE, S.A. a consultancy company with
office in Mexico City, San José, and Lima I worked closely together
with many government organizations and private companies. For the World Bank’s Economic Development Institute I carried out two regional studies on sustainable development policies. For the European Commission I wrote one report on corporate social responsiblity, and one on the green economy for the European External Action Service.

Currently, I am Vice-Chancellor or Chief Executive Officer of the Papua New Guinea University of Papua New Guinea, in Lae.